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Road to Excellence Supports Strong Pan Am Games Bid

TORONTO, Feb. 19 /CNW/ - The Road to Excellence Initiative expressed its
full support today for the proposed Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games venue plan.
The venue plan addresses all of the sport legacy needs identified by the
Canadian Olympic Committee at the very beginning of the bid process:
- The Pan Am Games Aquatic Centre will become the preeminent aquatics
facility in Canada, and with additional 50m pools proposed for Markham
and Hamilton, this will add four new 50m pools to the Greater Golden
Horseshoe.
- The Canadian Sport Centre Ontario will be home to state of the art
coaching and training for our high performance athletes. This facility
is very overdue for the Toronto area.
- The proposed Athletics Stadium in Hamilton will allow our best
athletes to train and compete in Ontario.
- The proposed velodrome in Hamilton will house the only indoor 250m
cycling track in Canada. We expect Hamilton to become a centre of high
performance cycling in Canada.
"Ontario has suffered from a lack of training facilities for many years,"
said Alex Baumann, Executive Director of Road to Excellence and double Olympic
gold medallist in swimming. "These facilities, as well significant investments
in a number of other games sport facilities will ensure our athletes will be
able to live and train in Ontario."
According to Bid Officials, the Games would bring a total $1.4 billion
injection of federal, provincial, municipal and private funding into sports
infrastructure for the community use and long-term athlete development in
Ontario for years to come. It would also trigger more than 15,000 jobs in
construction, tourism and event support.
About Road to Excellence
Road to Excellence (RTE) is a collaborative summer sport technical
initiative of the Canadian Olympic Committee, the Canadian Paralympic
Committee, and Sport Canada. RTE is designed to provide technical support and
assistance to targeted summer National Sport Organizations to prepare athletes
for future Olympic and Paralympic Games. The goal for RTE is for Canada to
place among the top 12 nations at the 2012 Olympic Games in London and to
place among the top five nations at the 2012 Paralympic Games in London.
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For further information:

For further information: on the 2015 Pan Am Games Bid, visit
www.toronto2015.org